Current's The War on Weed is indeed current. Part of the channel's Vanguard series, host Christof Putzel (below) travels from Los Angeles to Seattle, and New York to Denver.
In L.A., he gets a doctor's recommendation to use medical marijuana from Allan Franklin.
In Seattle, he attends the Hempfest, and interviews Mayor Mike McGinn and City Attorney Peter Holmes.
Watch the trailer below
The New York segment, about the high marijuana arrest totals, is particularly insightful. Putzel drives around New York's mean streets, watching police stop and frisk young black and Hispanic men, often arresting them for pot possession. Brooklyn Assemblyman Hakeen Jeffries is trying to amend the state's decrim law so that "in public view" busts are not allowed. Public defender Ellen Sacks calls the 50,000 plus arrests a year "scandalous."
In Denver, the medical marijuana industry is buzzing along without federal interference. Putzel visits an 800-plant indoor grow operation and tours Dixie Elixirs, a THC-infused soda company.
The final segment zeroes in on the current conflict in California between dispensaries and U.S. attorneys, who are threatening their existence. Harborside's Steve DeAngelo offers a timely dose of righteous indignation. (Watch DeAngelo on Weed Wars on Discovery, starting Dec. 1.)
"If we learned anything," Putzel concludes, "it's that America's marijuana laws are a conflicted and unequally enforced mess where one state's entrepreneur is the federal government's felon, and the ground is always shifting. It's impossible to predict what kind of change we can expect."
It was a great piece and really highlighted Colorado as being the most progressive state when it comes to medical marijuana. What was not noted in the piece is that Colorado has some of the lowest crime rates, not just drug-related crime rates. NYC's draconian policing method on the other hand is just one of many problems that police department is facing.
Btw, it's Dixie Elixirs & Edibles.